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Sir,
All I need is four glasses.
All I need are four glasses.
What I need is four glasses.
What I need are four glasses.
Are all of these correct?
Hello SonuKumar,
Yes, all of these are possible.
'All' can have the sense of 'the only thing' or 'the only things'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Sir,
Both are a different thing.
Both are different things.
The two are a different thing.
The two are different things.
Are all of them correct and do they all mean the same thing ?
Hello SonuKumar,
In my view 'both' and 'The two' are plural, so the second and fourth sentences are possible (with 'different things').
'Both' and 'the two' strike me as redundant since if one of the items is different then both must be, but it is grammatically possible. I think a more natural option would be simply 'they'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Respected sir,
1. All employees wished one another a happy new year.
2. All employees wished one another happy new year.
Which one is correct?
If 1 is wrong, why?
Hello wigyan,
I'd probably say 'a happy new year', but both of these are correct.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Respected sir,
1. I have a dozen of doubts in this concept.
2. I have four dozen of oranges.
which sentence is correct?
Hi wigyan,
Actually, both sentences need a correction. It should be 'a dozen' + noun (without the article), e.g. 'a dozen doubts' and 'four dozen oranges'. :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Ei Thandar Kyaw,
I think himself is the most likely answer, since the sentence mentions 'boy'.
If the sentence was just The baby saw ... (without mentioning 'boy'), then 'itself' would be the best answer.
I hope that helps :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Imran 26,
Mitgators and intensifiers are adverbs which are used to make adjectives weaker or stronger, respectively. They are in the adjectives section because they are used only with adjectives and not with verbs or as sentence adverbs.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Peace95,
The first sentence is correct. This is an example of inversion in which the adverb here is moved to the front, but there is no need to change the subject-verb order.
We say it's me not it's I. The same is true for other pronouns: it's him, it's them etc.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Tomi,
This is a great observation. You are right in thinking that 'wanted' really means 'want' in such cases. The reason people use a past form is because it is considered more polite.
Using a verb form that is more 'distant' in time from the actual time we are speaking about is one common way of being polite in English. So in this example, a past form is used to speak about the present. We use the past in this way particularly when expressing our desire to do something.
Another example is the use of 'would like' instead of 'want' -- 'would like' is more 'distant' than 'want' because it is more of an expression of a desire than a direct request. When, for example, people are at the counter at Tim Horton's, they generally say 'I'd like a coffee' instead of 'I want a coffee' to make their order because it is more polite.
Hope this helps you make sense of it.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Agape77,
Native speakers would probably use your third option and often we say 'picture' instead of 'photo', though there's nothing wrong with saying 'photo'. In general, the phrase I'd recommend is 'take a picture of', but of course you could change other parts of the request. For example, instead of 'Could you take', you could say 'Would you mind taking' or 'Could I ask you to take'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Agape77,
We use 'wear' to talk about the clothing that a person has on their body. We usually use 'put on' to say what you mean: 'I put his shoes on' is what you should say here.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Agape77,
The answer to both of your questions is 'yes': yes, that would be correct in that situation, and yes, it could potentially be ambiguous. If you wanted to make it completely clear, you'd have to say something like 'I put his shoes on to protect his feet' or 'I put his shoes on because mine were dirty'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Tomi,
In answer to the first question, yes, you could use the sentences you suggested. I was just imagining different situations that the sentences might come up in with my suggestions, but yours are perfect as well.
As for your second question, 'try to' and 'try and' mean the same thing, but 'try and' is more informal. In informal situations, it's also common to hear 'and' instead of 'to' after 'wait' (e.g. 'Let's wait and see what happens').
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Risa warysha,
Those three phrases with number mean the same thing. They all show that the number is very high. Yes, they can be followed by of and a plural noun, and the verb is usually plural. Here are some examples:
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Risa warysha,
These sentences are grammatical and so you could use them from that point of view. I would probably choose other ways to phrase them, though, though it really depends on the situation.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Risa warysha,
In many cases, several of these phrases can be used, with similar meanings. For example, we could say:
There's only a slight difference: the second sentence implies that the number of people may change (e.g. on different days, or at different times), because the plural (Great numbers) means that there is more than one measurement of the number of people. It seems to describe the situation more generally. In many cases, though, this difference may not matter, and you could use either phrase.
These sentences also mean pretty much the same thing:
But the first one seems like it's describing a specific survey result, because it mentions The great number (i.e. a single, particular number). The second sentence seems like it's describing the situation more in general.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Samin,
A collective noun is one which takes a number of items as a single unit. For example:
a crowd of people ['crowd' is the collective noun]
a group of children
a herd of cows
In your examples I do no see any collective nouns. The word 'consist' is a verb, not a noun. The word 'countries' is a normal plural noun, not a collective term.
The word 'world' is not a proper noun. 'Earth' would be a proper noun to describe our planet.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Yolanda,
I'm not sure, either, to be honest. Would 'optician's' make sense in the context you saw this phrase?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Imran 26
'deed' is a noun with a variety of meanings, whereas 'indeed' is an adverb that is used for emphasis or to express a reaction on the part of the speaker. Please have a look at the dictionary entries, and be sure to read through the examples.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SonuKumar,
The second and fourth sentences are grammatically possible; the first and third are not. However, none of them scan particularly well and they would be better phrased in a different way.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SonuKumar,
I think something like 'This is the life I can't make a living from' might be better, but it's hard to say if it would be appropriate or even make sense without knowing the context and the style which you are aiming for.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Yerlan,
In your sentence she's is a contracted form of she has. The verb lost is a past participle. Together this forms the present perfect (she's lost = she has lost), which is used because the action took place in the recent past and has a result which is relevant now (she owns a new car).
Kind of is a very flexible phrase and can be used before many different types of word:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Hosseinpour
Those are all fine -- good work!
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team